Method and system for remote diagnostic, control and information collection based on various communication modes for sending messages to users

ABSTRACT

A method, system, and program product for communicating with machines and end users connected to a network. Information sent to or from the machines is transmitted using electronic mail or a via a direct connection. The electronic mail may be transmitted over the Internet to a service center or from a service center to a resource administrator, but also may remain within a local or wide area network for transmission between a machine and an end user or a resource administrator. E-mail messages may be transmitted from a computer which is attached to a device which is being monitored or controlled and include information regarding the status, usage or capabilities of the attached device. The device may send status messages and usage information of the device by an end user to either a resource administrator or to a service center on the Internet through a firewall. The message may be sent directly to the resource administrator station if an urgent need of the end user is indicated, so that a communication may be sent either directly to the end user or to a device driver so that the device driver may communicate the message to the end user. For example, an end user may have exceeded a predetermined limit of resource usage, and needs to be informed. For routine information, the service center may manage all the resources on an intranet and may send predetermined types of information such as summary information regarding usage of network resources to the end user using e-mail.

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] The present application is related to U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 09/311,148 filed May 13, 1999, entitled “Application UnitMonitoring and Reporting System and Method,” U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 09/192,583 filed Nov. 17, 1998 entitled “Method and System forCommunicating with a Device Attached to a Computer Using Electronic MailMessages,” U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/883,492 filed Jun. 26,1997 entitled “Method and System for Diagnosis and Control of MachinesUsing Connectionless Modes Having Delivery Monitoring and an AlternateCommunication Mode,” U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/820,633 filedMar. 19, 1997 entitled “Method and System to Diagnose a Business OfficeDevice Based on Operating Parameters Set by a User,” now U.S. Pat. No.5,887,216, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/733,134 filed Oct. 16,1996 entitled “Method and System for Diagnosis and Control of MachinesUsing Connectionless Modes of Communication,” now U.S. Pat. No.5,909,493, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/880,683, filed Jun. 23,1997, U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 09/107,989 and 09/108,705, bothof which were filed Jul. 1, 1998, all three of which are entitled“Method and System for Controlling and Communicating with Machines UsingMultiple Communication Formats,” and all three of which are divisions ofU.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/624,228 filed Mar. 29, 1996, nowU.S. Pat. No. 5,818,603, entitled “Method and System for Controlling andCommunicating with Machines Using Multiple Communication Formats,” U.S.patent application Ser. Nos. 08/738,659 and 08/738,461, both of whichare entitled “Method and System for Diagnosis and Control of MachinesUsing Connection and Connectionless Modes of Communication,” filed Oct.30, 1996, and are divisions of, and U.S. patent application Ser. No.08/916,009, entitled “Method and System for Diagnosis and Control ofMachines Using Connection and Connectionless Modes of Communication,”filed Aug. 21, 1997, which is a continuation of, U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 08/463,002 filed Jun. 5, 1995, entitled “Method and System forDiagnosis and Control of Machines Using Connection and ConnectionlessModes of Communication,” now U.S. Pat. No. 5,819,110, and U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 08/852,413 filed May 7, 1987, entitled “Method andSystem for Controlling and Communicating with Business Office Devices,”now U.S. Pat. No. 5,774,678, which is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 08/698,068 filed Aug. 15, 1996, entitled “Methodand Apparatus for Controlling and Communicating With Business OfficeDevices,” now U.S. Pat. No. 5,649,120 which is a continuation of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 08/562,192 filed Nov. 22, 1995, now U.S.Pat. No. 5,568,618, which is a continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 08/473,780 filed Jun. 6, 1995, entitled “Method and Apparatusfor Controlling and Communicating With Business Office Devices,” nowU.S. Pat. No. 5,544,289, which is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 08/426,679 filed Apr. 24, 1995, now U.S. Pat. No.5,537,554, entitled “Method and Apparatus for Controlling andCommunicating With Business Office Devices” which is a continuation ofU.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/282,168 filed Jul. 28, 1994 andentitled “Method and Apparatus for Controlling and Communicating WithBusiness Office Devices,” now U.S. Pat. No. 5,412,779, which is acontinuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/902,462 filed Jun.19, 1992, now abandoned, which is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 07/549,278, filed Jul. 6, 1990, now abandoned, thedisclosure of each is incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] 1. Field of the Invention

[0003] This invention generally relates to the use of network messagesfor communicating information to an end user regarding the usage of anetwork resource. The invention is more particularly related to theprocessing performed within a computer in order to process and forwardthe appropriate information from the network resource to the end user.The invention is further related to a method and system for sending anelectronic mail message to an end user regarding the end user's usage ofthe network resource. Still further, the invention is related to thetransmission of a warning message to an end user, for example, when anumber of pages printed by the end user on a network printer is close toa predetermined limit.

[0004] 2. Discussion of the Background

[0005] Electronic mail (“e-mail”) has become very popular forcommunicating information between people and provides the benefits ofbeing inexpensive and convenient to a user. Extensive information andprotocols are available explaining how e-mail including Internet e-mailoperates and there are many commercially available programs forimplementing e-mail functions.

[0006] Internet facsimile is also available. See, for example, Toyoda,K, Ohno, H., Murai, J., Wing, D., “A Simple Mode of Facsimile UsingInternet Mail,” March, 1998, The Internet Society, Request For Comments(“RFC”) 2305, produced by the Internet Engineering Task Force (“IETF”)Fax Working Group, the entire contents of which are incorporated byreference herein.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0007] Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide amethod, system, and program product for implementing communication usingelectronic network messages or e-mail.

[0008] It is another object of this invention to provide a method,system, and program product in which an electronic network messageregarding usage of a network resource is transmitted to an end user.

[0009] It is yet another object of the invention to provide a method,system, and program product which transmits information regarding usageof a device originating from the device through a computer.

[0010] It is yet another object of the invention to provide a method,system, and program product which transmits summary informationregarding usage of a device originating from the device through aservice center to a resource manager or resource administrator.

[0011] It is a further object of the invention to provide a method,system, and program product which transmits information regarding usageof a device originating from a device to a resource manager or resourceadministrator or to a service center.

[0012] It is yet another object of the invention to provide a method,system, and program product which transmits information regarding usageof a device to an end user.

[0013] These and other objects are accomplished by a method, system, andprogram product in which an electronic network message regarding theusage of a network resource is received by a computer. When it isdetermined that the electronic network message contains informationregarding usage of the network resource by a particular end user, acommunication may be transmitted from the computer to the end user. Forexample, the end user may receive a warning message that a number ofprinted pages is getting close to a predetermined limit.

[0014] In an embodiment of the invention, a message regarding the usageof a device by a particular end user may be sent from the device eitherto a resource administrator or through a firewall to a service center.Resource usage of network devices by a particular end user may betransmitted from the devices to transmit the appropriate informationregarding usage of the devices to either the resource administrator or aservice center. For some resources, a device driver may be needed toperform this task. Resource usage, such as, for example, the number ofpages printed by an end user, is tracked for an intranet so that an enduser's resource usage is still tracked even if the user changes stationson the intranet. When, for example, a user receives a message thathis/her usage of a particular network resource is close to apredetermined limit, the user may take an appropriate action such as,for example, requesting an increase of the resource limit. If the userexceeds his/her limit, he/she may be prohibited from using furthernetwork resources. A device or network resource may be any type ofdevice including a hard disk space, a business office device such as aprinter, a copier, a scanner, or a facsimile machine, a digital camera,or any other electronic device which is desired to be remotely monitoredand/or controlled including equipment for remotely monitoring andcontrolling utility meters and household appliances. In this context, auser, or an end user, may include both human users and electronic userssuch as, for example, a software agent.

[0015] The invention also relates to the transmission of an outgoinge-mail message from a computer containing information from an attacheddevice as one means to transmit the resource usage information to aresource administrator or a service center. Information from the devicemay be transmitted to a device driver of the computer and subsequentlyto a Messaging Application Programing Interface (“MAPI”) of thecomputer. If desired, the transmission of the electronic mail messagefrom the device may establish a TCP (“Transmission Control Protocol”)connection between the computer and the device which functions as amessage transfer agent. As a further alternative, one or more files maybe created within the computer and these files may be written to a mailspool directory of the computer. When the computer detects the existenceof the file(s) in the mail spool directory, an e-mail message istransmitted from the computer. If it is desired, and if the environmentsupports it, the information may be sent directly to the resourceadministrator or the service center without using e-mail transmission.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0016] A more complete appreciation of the invention and many of theattendant advantages thereof will be readily obtained as the samebecomes better understood by reference to the following detaileddescription when considered in connection with the accompanyingdrawings, wherein:

[0017]FIG. 1 illustrates three networked business office machinesconnected to a network of computers and data bases through the Internet;

[0018]FIG. 2 illustrates the components of a digital copier/printer;

[0019]FIG. 3 illustrates the electronic components of the digitalcopier/printer illustrated in FIG. 2;

[0020]FIG. 4 illustrates details of the multi-port communicationinterface illustrated in FIG. 3;

[0021]FIG. 5 illustrates an alternative system configuration in whichbusiness office devices are connected to a computer which is connectedto a network, and also devices which are connected directly to thenetwork;

[0022]FIG. 6A illustrates in block diagram format a manner in whichinformation may be communicated to or from a device using electronicmail;

[0023]FIG. 6B illustrates an alternative way of communicating usingelectronic mail in which the computer which is connected to the devicealso serves as a message transfer agent;

[0024]FIG. 6C illustrates an alternative way of communicating usingelectronic mail in which the device includes a message transfer agent;

[0025]FIG. 7 illustrates an alternative manner of sending messagesacross the Internet;

[0026]FIG. 8 illustrates an exemplary computer which may be connected tothe device and used to communicate electronic mail messages;

[0027]FIG. 9 illustrates in block diagram format modules, objects, andinformation which are contained within a computer;

[0028]FIG. 10 illustrates information of a device driver which may beused with this invention;

[0029]FIG. 11 illustrates a network with resource administrationstations and a service center;

[0030]FIG. 12 illustrates an intranet with a resource administrator, enduser stations, and devices connected to the intranet;

[0031]FIG. 13 is a data flow diagram of communications to and from thedevice;

[0032]FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating the process of the data flowdiagram of FIG. 13;

[0033]FIG. 15 is a flowchart illustrating the processing performed whencommunication is initiated by the device;

[0034]FIG. 16 is a flowchart illustrating the processing performed whena non-urgent message is sent from the device;

[0035]FIG. 17 is a flowchart illustrating the processing performed whenan urgent message is sent from the device;

[0036]FIG. 18 is a flowchart illustrating the processing performed whena message is sent from the service center;

[0037]FIG. 19A illustrates an exemplary e-mail message and FIG. 19Billustrates an executable file which may be attached to the e-mailmessage of FIG. 19A;

[0038]FIG. 20 illustrates a screen display of an e-mail message;

[0039]FIG. 21 illustrates a method of receiving an e-mail message;

[0040]FIG. 22 illustrates a second method of receiving an e-mailmessage;

[0041]FIG. 23 illustrates a method of transmitting an e-mail message;

[0042]FIG. 24 illustrates another method of transmitting an e-mailmessage;

[0043]FIG. 25 illustrates a data structure containing deviceinformation;

[0044]FIG. 26 illustrates a log of trouble information which hasoccurred in various devices;

[0045]FIG. 27 illustrates query results of information relating to aspecific printer; and

[0046]FIG. 28 illustrates an intranet with a resource administratorgenerating a usage report;

[0047]FIG. 29 illustrates a warning message which is generated when auser has reached a certain percentage of resource usage;

[0048]FIG. 30 illustrates an exemplary generalized network having aresource administrator, a service center, and a user;

[0049]FIG. 31 is a flowchart illustrating the logic for a resourceadministrator to create a new user account for a network;

[0050]FIG. 32 is a block diagram of a user interacting with applicationsoftware using a driver to access a network resource;

[0051]FIG. 33 is a flowchart of exemplary logic to be used by the driverillustrated in FIG. 32; and

[0052]FIG. 34 is a flowchart of exemplary logic to be used by a ServiceCenter when it receives a message of usage information.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0053] Referring now to the drawings, wherein like numerals designateidentical or corresponding parts throughout the several views, and moreparticularly to FIG. 1 thereof, there is illustrated a figure showingvarious machines and computers for monitoring, diagnosing andcontrolling the operation of the machines. In FIG. 1, there is a firstnetwork 16, such as a Local Area Network (“LAN”) connected to computerworkstations 17, 18, 20 and 22. The workstations can be any type ofcomputers including IBM Personal Computer compatible devices, Unix basedcomputers, or Apple Macintoshes. Also connected to the network 16 are adigital copier/printer 24, a facsimile machine 28, and a printer 32. Thedevices 24, 28 and 32 are referred to as machines or monitored devicesand other types of devices may be used as the machines or monitoreddevices, including any of the devices discussed below. Also, a facsimileserver (not illustrated) may be connected to the network 16 and have atelephone, ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network), wireless, orcable connection. In addition to the digital copier/printer 24,facsimile machine 28, and printer 32 being connected to the network 16,these devices may also include conventional telephone and/or ISDN and/orcable connections 26, 30 and 34, respectively. As is explained below,the business office machines or business devices 24, 28 and 32communicate with a remote monitoring, diagnosis and control station,also referred to as a monitoring device, through the Internet via thenetwork 16 or by a direct telephone, ISDN, wireless or cable connection.

[0054] In FIG. 1, the Internet is generally designated by 10. TheInternet 10 includes a plurality of interconnected computers and routersdesignated by 12A-12I. The manner of communicating over the Internet isknown through Request For Comments (“RFC”) documents obtained fromwww.ietf.org. TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol)related communication is described for example in the book “TCP/IPIllustrated,” Vol. 1, The Protocols, by Stevens, from Addison-WesleyPublishing Company, 1994, which is incorporated herein by reference.

[0055] In FIG. 1, a firewall 14 is connected between the Internet 10 andthe network 16. A firewall is a device that allows only authorizedcomputers to access a network or other computer via the Internet.Firewalls are known and commercially available devices and/or software,for example, include SunScreen from Sun Microsystems Inc. Similarly, afirewall 50 is connected between the Internet 10 and a network 52. Also,a firewall 40 is connected between the Internet 10 and a workstation 42.

[0056] The network 52 is a conventional network and includes a pluralityof workstations 56, 62, 68 and 74. These workstations may be differentdepartments within a company such as marketing, manufacturing, designengineering and customer service departments. In addition to theworkstations connected via the network 52, there is a workstation 42which is not directly connected to the network 52. Information in a database stored in a disk 46 may be shared using proper encryption andprotocols over the Internet to the workstations connected directly tothe network 52. Also, the workstation 42 includes a direct connection toa telephone line and/or ISDN and/or cable 44 and the data base in disk46 may be accessed through the telephone line, ISDN, or cable. The cableused by this invention may be implemented using a cable which typicallyis used to carry television programming, cable which provides for highspeed communication of digital data typically used with computers or thelike, or may be implemented using any desired type of cable.

[0057] Information of the business office machines 24, 28 and 32 may bestored in one or more of the data bases stored in the disks 46, 54, 58,64, 70 and 76. Each of the customer service, marketing, manufacturing,and engineering departments may have their own data base or may sharefrom one or more data bases. Each of the disks used to store data basesis a non-volatile memory such as a hard disk or optical disk.Alternatively, the data bases may be stored in any storage deviceincluding solid state and/or semiconductor memory devices. As anexample, disk 64 contains the marketing data base, disk 58 contains themanufacturing data base, disk 70 contains the engineering data base anddisk 76 contains the customer service data base. Alternatively, thedisks 54 and 46 store one or more of the data bases.

[0058] In addition to the workstations 56, 62, 68, 74 and 42 beingconnected to the Internet, these workstations may also include aconnection to a telephone line, ISDN, or cable which provides a secureconnection to the machine being monitored, diagnosed and/or controlledand is used during a connection-mode of communication. Additionally, ifone of the Internet, telephone, ISDN, or cable is not operatingproperly, one of the others can be automatically used for communication.

[0059] A feature of the present invention is the use of aconnectionless-mode of communication (e.g., Internet e-mail) ortransmission between a machine and a computer for monitoring, diagnosingand controlling the machine, and transmitting information regardingresource usage to an end user. Alternatively, the e-mail which istransmitted may be implemented using a connection mode of communication.The IBM Dictionary of Computing by George McDaniel, 1994, defines aconnectionless-mode transmission to be the transmission of a single unitof data from a source service access point to one or more destinationservice access points without establishing a connection. The IBMDictionary also defines a connection-mode transmission to be thetransmission of units of data from a source service access point to oneor more destination service access points via a connection. Theconnection is established prior to data transfer and released followingdata transfer. Additional information about the connection-mode and theconnectionless-mode of operation is described in the Handbook ofComputer-Communications Standards, Vol. 1, 2nd Edition, by WilliamStallings, 1990, which is incorporated herein by reference. In order totransfer data from one DTE (Data Terminal Equipment) to another DTE,there is a unique identifier or address for each DTE. This uniqueidentifier or address is usable in both connection-modes andconnectionless-modes of communication.

[0060]FIG. 2 illustrates the mechanical layout of the digitalcopier/printer 24 illustrated in FIG. 1. In FIG. 2, 101 is a fan for thescanner, 102 is a polygonal mirror used with a laser printer, and 103designates an Fθ lens used to collimate light from a laser (notillustrated). Reference numeral 104 designates a sensor for detectinglight from the scanner, 105 is a lens for focusing light from thescanner onto the sensor 104, and 106 is a quenching lamp used to eraseimages on the photoconductive drum 132. There is a charging corona unit107 and a developing roller 108. Reference numeral 109 designates a lampused to illustrate a document to be scanned and 110, 111 and 112designate mirrors used to reflect light onto the sensor 104. There is adrum mirror 113 used to reflect light to the photoconductive drum 132originating from the polygon mirror 102. Reference numeral 114designates a fan used to cool the charging area of the digitalcopier/printer, and 115 is a first paper feed roller used for feedingpaper from the first paper cassette 117, and 116 is a manual feed table.Similarly, 118 is a second paper feed roller for the second cassette119. Reference numeral 120 designates a relay roller, 121 is aregistration roller, 122 is an image density sensor and 123 is atransfer/separation corona unit. Reference numeral 124 is a cleaningunit, 125 is a vacuum fan, 126 illustrates a transport belt, 127 is apressure roller, and 128 is an exit roller. Reference numeral 129 is ahot roller used to fix toner onto the paper, 130 is an exhaust fan and131 is the main motor used to drive the digital copier.

[0061]FIG. 3 illustrates a block diagram of the electronic componentsillustrated in FIG. 2. The CPU 160 is a microprocessor and acts as thesystem controller. There is a random access memory 162 to storedynamically changing information including operating parameters of thedigital copier. A read only memory 164 stores the program code used torun the digital copier and also information describing the copier(static-state data) such as the model number, serial number of thecopier, and default parameters.

[0062] There is a multi-port communication interface 166 which allowsthe digital copier to communicate with external devices. Referencenumeral 168 represents a telephone, ISDN, or cable line and 170represents a network. Further information of the multi-portcommunication interface is described with respect to FIG. 4. Aninterface controller 172 is used to connect an operation panel 174 to asystem bus 186. The operation panel 174 includes standard input andoutput devices found on a digital copier including a copy button, keysto control the operation of the copier such as number of copies,reducement/enlargement, darkness/lightness, etc. Additionally, a liquidcrystal display may be included within the operation panel 174 todisplay parameters and messages of the digital copier to a user.

[0063] A storage interface 176 connects storage devices to the systembus 186. The storage devices include a flash memory 178 which can besubstituted by a conventional EEPROM and a disk 182. The disk 182includes a hard disk, optical disk, and/or a floppy disk drive. There isa connection 180 connected to the storage interface 176 which allows foradditional memory devices to be connected to the digital copier. Theflash memory 178 is used to store semi-static state data which describesparameters of the digital copier which infrequently change over the lifeof the copier. Such parameters include the options and configuration ofthe digital copier. An option interface 184 allows additional hardwaresuch as an external interface to be connected to the digital copier. Aclock/timer 187 is utilized to keep track of both the time and date andalso to measure elapsed time.

[0064] On the left side of FIG. 3, the various sections making up thedigital copier are illustrated. Reference numeral 202 designates asorter and contains sensors and actuators used to sort the output of thedigital copier. There is a duplexer 200 which allows a duplex operationto be performed by the digital copier and includes conventional sensorsand actuators. The digital copier includes a large capacity tray unit198 which allows paper trays holding a large number of sheets to be usedwith the digital copier. The large capacity tray unit 198 includesconventional sensors and actuators.

[0065] A paper feed controller 196 is used to control the operation offeeding paper into and through the digital copier. A scanner 194 is usedto scan images into the digital copier and includes conventionalscanning elements such as a light, mirror, etc. Additionally, scannersensors are used such as a home position sensor to determine that thescanner is in the home position and a lamp thermistor to ensure properoperation of the scanning lamp. There is a printer/imager 192 whichprints the output of the digital copier and includes a conventionallaser printing mechanism, a toner sensor, and an image density sensor. Afuser 190 is used to fuse the toner onto the page using a hightemperature roller and includes an exit sensor, a thermistor to assurethat the fuser 190 is not overheating, and an oil sensor. Additionally,there is an optional unit interface 188 used to connect to optionalelements of the digital copier such as an automatic document feeder, adifferent type of sorter/collator, or other elements which can be addedto the digital copier.

[0066]FIG. 4 illustrates details of the multi-port communicationinterface 166. The digital copier may communicate to external devicesthrough a Centronics interface 220 which receives or transmitsinformation to be printed, a cable modem unit 221 which has a high speedconnection over cable, a SCSI interface 222, a conventional telephoneinterface 224 which connects to a telephone line 168A, an ISDN interface226 which connects to an ISDN line 168B, an RS-232 interface 228, and aLAN interface 230 which connects to a LAN 170. A single device whichconnects to both a Local Area Network and a telephone line iscommercially available from Megahertz and is known as theEthernet-Modem.

[0067] The CPU or other microprocessor or circuitry executes amonitoring process to monitor the state of each of the sensors of thedigital copier, and a sequencing process is used to execute theinstructions of the code used to control and operate the digital copier.Additionally, there is a central system control process executed tocontrol the overall operation of the digital copier and a communicationprocess used to assure reliable communication to external devicesconnected to the digital copier. The system control process monitors andcontrols data storage in a static state memory such as the ROM 164 ofFIG. 3, a semi-static memory such as the flash memory 178 or disk 182,or the dynamic state data which is stored in a volatile or non-volatilememory such as the RAM 162 or the flash memory 178 or disk 182.Additionally, the static state data may be stored in a device other thanthe ROM 164 such as a non-volatile memory including either of the flashmemory 178 or disk 182.

[0068] The above details have been described with respect to a digitalcopier but the present invention is equally applicable to other businessoffice machines or devices such as an analog copier, a facsimilemachine, a scanner, a printer, a facsimile server, or other businessoffice machines, or an appliance with which a user interfaces such as,for example, a microwave oven, VCR, digital camera, cellular phone, palmtop computer, etc. Additionally, the present invention includes othertypes of machines which operate using a connection-mode orconnectionless-mode of communication, and also e-mail, such as ametering system including a gas, water, or electricity metering system,household appliances, vending machines, or any other device whichperforms mechanical operations, such as automobiles, and has a need tobe monitored, and performs a function. In addition to monitoring specialpurpose machines, and computers, the invention can be used to monitor,control, and diagnose a general purpose computer which would be themonitored and/or controlled device, and information regarding resourceusage by an end user may be communicated to a resource manager, aservice center and to the end user.

[0069]FIG. 5 illustrates an alternative system diagram of the inventionin which different devices and sub-systems are connected to the Internet10. However, there is no requirement to have each of these devices orsub-systems as part of the invention but any individual component orsubsystem illustrated in FIG. 5 is also part of the invention. Further,the elements illustrated in FIG. 1 may be connected to the Internet 10which is illustrated in FIG. 5. In FIG. 5, there is illustrated a firewall 250 connected to an intranet 252. One of the computers or devicesconnected to the intranet 252 is a service machine 254 which includestherein or has connected thereto data 256 which may be stored in a database format. The data 256 includes history, performance, malfunction,resource usage information for particular end users and particulardevices, and any other information including statistical information ofthe operation or failure or set-up and components or optional equipmentof devices which are being monitored. The service machine 254 may beimplemented as the device or computer which requests the monitoreddevices to transmit data or which requests that remote control and/ordiagnosis tests be performed on the monitored devices, and whichtransmits information to the end user regarding the end user's resourceusage. The service machine 254 may be implemented as any type of deviceand is preferably implemented using a computerized device such as ageneral purpose computer.

[0070] Another sub-system of FIG. 5 includes a fire wall 258, anintranet 260, and a printer 262 connected thereto. In this sub-system,there is not a separate general purpose computer connected between theintranet 260 (or a different type of computer network) but the functionsof sending and receiving electronic mail messages by the printer 262(and similarly by a copier 286) are performed by circuitry, amicroprocessor, or any other type of hardware contained within ormounted to the printer 262.

[0071] An alternate type of sub-system includes the use of an Internetservice provider 264 which may be any type of Internet service providerincluding known commercial companies such as America Online, Netcom,CompuServe, Niftyserve, the Internet service provider Erols, or anyother Internet service provider. In this sub-system, a computer 266 isconnected to the Internet service provider 264, through a modem, forexample, such as a telephone line modem, a cable modem, modems which useany type of wires such as modems used over an ISDN (Integrated ServicesDigital Network) line, ASDL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line), modemswhich use frame relay communication, any digital or analog modem,wireless modems such as a radio frequency modem, a fiber optic modem, ora device which uses infrared light waves. Further, a business officedevice 268 is connected to the computer 266. As an alternative to thebusiness office device 268 (and any other device illustrated in FIG. 5),a different type of machine may be monitored or controlled such as adigital copier, any type of appliance, security system, or utility metersuch as an electrical, water, or gas utility meter, or any other devicediscussed herein.

[0072] Also illustrated in FIG. 5 is a fire wall 270 connected to anetwork 274. The network 274 may be implemented as any type of computernetwork, such an Ethernet network, for example. Networking softwarewhich may be used to control the network includes any desired networkingsoftware including software commercially available from Novell orMicrosoft. The network 274 may be implemented as an Intranet, ifdesired. A computer 272 connected to the network 274 may be used toobtain information from a business office device 278 and generatereports such as reports showing problems which occurred in variousmachines connected to the network and usage reports of the devicesconnected to the network 274. In this embodiment, a computer 276 isconnected between the business office device 278 and the network 274.This computer receives e-mail communications from the network andforwards the appropriate commands or data, or any other information, tothe business office device 278. While it has been stated that thebusiness office device 278 is connected to the computer 276, there is norequirement for a wired connection between the business office deviceand the computer and communication between the business office device278 and the computer 276 may be accomplished using wires or wirelessmethods including through the use of radio frequency connections andlight connections which may be through an infrared connection, orthrough fiber optics. Similarly, each of the various networks andintranets illustrated in FIG. 5 may be established using any desiredmanner including through the establishment of wireless networks such asradio frequency networks. The wireless communication described hereinmay be established using spread spectrum techniques including techniqueswhich use a spreading code and frequency hopping techniques such as thefrequency hopping wireless network which is disclosed in the BluetoothSpecification which is described at the world wide web sitewww.bluetooth.com, which is incorporated herein by reference.

[0073] Another sub-system illustrated in FIG. 5 includes a fire wall280, an intranet 284, a computer 282 connected thereto, and a copier286. The computer 282 may be used to generate reports and requestdiagnostic or control procedures. These diagnostic and controlprocedures may be performed with respect to the copier 286 or any of theother devices illustrated in or used with FIG. 5. While FIG. 5illustrates a plurality of fire walls, the fire walls are preferable butoptional equipment and therefore the invention may be operated withoutthe use of fire walls, if desired.

[0074]FIG. 6A illustrates a device 300 connected to a typical e-mailexchange system which includes components 302, 304, 306, 308, 310, 312,314, 316, and 318 which may be implemented in a conventional manner andare taken from FIG. 28.1 of Stevens, above. The device 300 may be any ofthe devices described herein and the user at a terminal 302 maycorrespond to any of the illustrated computers, such as the computer 276illustrated in FIG. 5. While FIG. 6A illustrates the user at a terminal302 as being a sender, the sending and receiving functions may bereversed in FIG. 6A. Further, if desired, there may not be a need forhaving a user at the terminal. Connected to the user at a terminal 302is the user agent 304. Popular user agents for Unix include MH, BerkeleyMail, Elm, and Mush. The user agent creates e-mail messages to be sentand if desired, places these messages to be sent in a queue 306. Themail to be sent is forwarded to a Message Transfer Agent (MTA) 308. Acommon MTA for Unix systems is Sendmail. Typically, the message transferagents 308 and 312 exchange communications using a TCP (TransferCommunication Protocol) connection or a TCP/IP (Internet Protocol)connection or protocol. It is to be noted that the communication betweenthe message transfer agents 308 and 312 may occur over the Internet, butalternatively may occur over any type of connection including anynetwork connection such as a local area network, wide area networkand/or an intranet. Further, any desired connection between the messagetransfer agents 308 and 312 may be utilized.

[0075] From the message transfer agents 312, e-mail messages are storedin user mailboxes 314 which are transferred to the user agent 316 andultimately transmitted to the user at a terminal 318 which functions asa receiving terminal.

[0076] The TCP provides a connection-mode of transmission. However, adirect connection is usually not established between the sendingterminal 302 and receiving terminal 318. Thus, the transmission of anelectronic mail message may be considered a connectionless-mode ofcommunication when it is being referred to as between two users orterminals, but when considering the transfer between MTAs, thecommunication is usually a connection-mode of communication.

[0077] As the Internet is a network accessible by many people andorganizations, it is not considered to be secure. Therefore, messagestransmitted over the Internet should be encrypted to keep the messagesconfidential. Encryption mechanisms are known and commercially availablewhich may be used with the present invention. For example, a C libraryfunction, crypto, is available from Sun Microcomputers for use with theUnix operating system, and other encryption and decryption routines areknown and commercially available and may also be used with thisinvention.

[0078] As an alternative to the general structure of FIG. 6A, a singlecomputer may be used which functions as the user terminal, and also themessage transfer agent. As illustrated in FIG. 6B, the device 300 isconnected to a computer 301 which includes the message transfer agent308. If desired, the other components on the sending side of FIG. 6A maybe included in the computer 301 of FIG. 6B including the user agent 304and the queue of mail to be sent 306.

[0079] A further alternative structure is shown in FIG. 6C in which themessage transfer agent 308 is formed as part of the device 300. Further,the message transfer agent 308 is connected to the message transferagent 312 by the TCP connection 310. This embodiment of FIG. 6Cillustrates a case in which the device 300 is directly connected to theTCP connection 310 and has an e-mail capability. A common instance ofthis embodiment of FIG. 6C may be the device 300 is a facsimile machinewith an e-mail capability of RFC 2305 (a simple mode of facsimile usingInternet mail).

[0080]FIG. 7 illustrates an alternative implementation of transferringmail and is based on FIG. 28.3 of Stevens. FIG. 7 illustrates anelectronic mail system having a relay system at each end. Thearrangement of FIG. 7 allows one system at an organization to act as amail hub. In FIG. 7, there are four MTAs connected between the two useragents 304 and 318. These MTAs include local MTA 322, relay MTA 328,relay MTA 332, and local MTA 340. The most common protocol used for mailmessages is SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) which may be used withthis invention, although any desired mail protocol may be utilized. InFIG. 7, 320 designates a sending host which includes the user at aterminal 302, the user agent 304, and the local MTA 322. The device 300is connected to, or alternatively included within, the sending host 320.As another case, the device 300 and host 320 can be in one machine wherethe host capability is built into the device 300. Other local MTAsinclude local MTA 324 and 326. Mail to be transmitted and received maybe queued in a queue of mail 330 of the relay MTA 328. The messages aretransferred across the TCP connection 310, which may be, for example,the Internet, or may be any other type of network or connection.

[0081] The transmitted messages are received by the relay MTA 332 and ifdesired, stored in a queue of mail 334. The mail is then forwarded tothe local MTA 340 of a receiving host 342. The mail may be placed in oneor more of the user mailboxes 314 and subsequently forwarded to the useragent 316 and finally forwarded to the user at a terminal 318. Ifdesired, the user may not be required to be at the terminal and the mailmay be directly forwarded to the terminal without user interaction.Other local MTAs at the receiving side include MTA 338 and local MTA 336which may have their own mailboxes, user agents, and terminals.

[0082] The various computers utilized by the present invention includingthe computers 266 and 276 of FIG. 5 may be implemented as illustrated inFIG. 8. Further, any other computer utilized by this invention may beimplemented in a similar manner to the computer illustrated in FIG. 8,if desired, including the service machine 254, computer 272, andcomputer 282 of FIG. 5. However, not every element illustrated in FIG. 8is required in each of these computers. In FIG. 8, the computer 360includes a CPU 362 which may be implemented as any type of processorincluding commercially available microprocessors from companies such asIntel, Motorola, Hitachi and NEC, for example. There is a working memorysuch as a RAM 364, and a wireless interface 366 which communicates witha wireless device 368. The communication between the interface 366 anddevice 368 may use any wireless medium such as radio waves, or lightwaves, for example. The radio waves may be implemented using a spreadspectrum technique such as Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)communication or using a frequency hopping technique such as thatdisclosed in the Bluetooth specification.

[0083] There is a ROM 370, and a flash memory 371, although any othertype of nonvolatile memory may be utilized in addition to or in place ofthe flash memory 371 such as an EPROM, or an EEPROM, for example. Aninput controller 372 has connected thereto a keyboard 374 and a mouse376. There is a serial interface 378 connected to a serial device 380.Additionally, a parallel interface 382 is connected to a parallel device384, a universal serial bus interface 386 is connected to a universalserial bus device 388, and also there is an IEEE 1394 device, commonlyreferred to as a fire wire device, connected to an IEEE 1394 interface398. The various elements of the computer 360 are connected by a systembus 390. A disk controller 396 is connected to a floppy disk drive 394and a hard disk drive 392. A communication controller 406 allows thecomputer 360 to communicate with other computers, or send e-mailmessages, for example over a telephone line 402, or a network 404. AnI/O (Input/Output) controller 408 is connected to a printer 410 and ahard disk 412, for example using a SCSI (Small Computer SystemInterface) bus. There is also a display controller 416 connected to aCRT (Cathode Ray Tube) 414, although any other type of display may beused including a liquid crystal display, a light emitting diode display,a plasma display, etc.

[0084]FIG. 9 illustrates various objects such as software objects andmodules contained within the computer 360. The computer 360 is connectedto a mail server 430 through which mail is sent and received. The mailserver 430 may be located at the Internet service provider 264 of FIG.5, may be located on a network, may be owned by the company owning thecomputer 360, or may even be located inside of the computer 360, forexample. An e-mail processor 432 is utilized to control the transmittingand receiving of electronic mail messages. The e-mail processor may beimplemented in any desired or known manner and may be based oncommercially available electronic mail programs such as Microsoft'sOutlook Express, or GroupWise by Novell, although any other e-mailprogram may be used, if desired. As a specific implementation, thee-mail system may retrieve e-mail from the server using POP3 (PostOffice Protocol) and to access the e-mail server in order to sende-mails using SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol), although any otherprotocol may be used, if desired. If the computer 360 utilizes anoperating system such as an operating system from Unix, then thecomputer will usually have an IP address and a mail system built-in.Therefore, there may be no need to utilize the mail server 430 with sucha system. A registry 434 contains various information of the system andmay be implemented in the same or similar manner as the registry ofWindows 95, Windows 98, and/or Windows NT, for example. Incoming mailinformation 436 may be utilized to store incoming mail. Additionally, ifdesired the incoming mail information 436 may be implemented to storethe POP3 location, and store file information about the incominge-mails. Outgoing mail information 438 contains information regardingSMTP and file information for outgoing mail. A device driver 440, suchas a printer driver, scanner driver, or other driver, for example may beused to communicate with the device 442 which may be any type of devicefrom which information is desired or to which information or controlsignals are to be sent. The device driver 440 is implemented totranslate commands or signals from the e-mail processor 432 to signalswhich are transmitted to the device 442 and vice versa. Alternatively,the e-mail processor 432 may perform more of the processing functionsand the device driver 440 may have more simple programming and fewresponsibilities. Further, any other implementation of the software maybe utilized as long as the function of proper communication and controlof the device 442 using e-mail messages is performed.

[0085] A more detailed exemplary implementation of the device driver 440of FIG. 9 is illustrated in FIG. 10. The device driver 440 includes adevice function support module 454 which may be implemented to performthe conventional and/or desired functions of a device driver. The devicedriver 440 also includes a remote control and diagnostic module 452. Ifdesired, the remote control and diagnostic module 452 may be implementedto perform some or all of the control and/or diagnostic functions whichare described in the related patent and patent applications and areincorporated by reference above. By implementing the control anddiagnostic module 452 in the device driver 440, the cost of the device442 may be reduced and the resources and capabilities of the device 442may be eliminated or reduced such as by reducing the amount of memory inthe device 442 such as DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) or flashmemory, for example. This reduced cost is possible as the hardwareresources of the computer 360 may be utilized in place of constructingadditional hardware to go into the device 442, if desired. Variousinformation including log information and error information may bestored in a data base which includes device data 456 using any desiredhardware and data or data base management software. Further, softwarewithin the device 442 may be reduced by increasing the functionsperformed by the device driver 440 including functions performed by theremote control and diagnostic module 452 and the device function supportmodule 454. These two software modules may be implemented in onesoftware module, if desired. Additionally, the software which keepstrack of the usage of the device may be removed from the device itselfand included in the device driver 440.

[0086]FIG. 11 illustrates an exemplary network with resourceadministration stations and a service center. The Internet 10 providesconnectivity to a plurality of Intranets 504, 522, 532, each havingfirewalls 506, 526, and 536, respectively, for a System 500. Asillustrated, the Intranet 504 is an exemplary Ricoh Intranet includingthe Ricoh Firewall 506, a Service Center 502 having access to data 501in a database connected to a Service Machine at the Service Center 502.As illustrated, the exemplary Intranet 522 is resident in Europe 528.The Intranet 522 includes a Resource Administrator 520 and Copier A 524.The exemplary Intranet 532 resides in the USA 538 and includes aResource Administrator 530 and a Printer B 534. Also, as illustrated inFIG. 11, an Internet Service Provider (“ISP”) 540 is connected to acomputer 542 which is connected to a Printer C 544. The data 501includes information regarding usage by an end user of network resourcessuch as, for example, a number of pages printed by an end user onPrinter B 534, and, for example, a predetermined limit on the end user'sallowed number of pages to be printed.

[0087]FIG. 12 illustrates an exemplary Intranet 600, having a Firewall606, three end users 620, 622, and 624, a Resource Administrator 610,and two devices, Printer A 602 and Printer B 604. The ResourceAdministration station of the Resource Administrator 610 may be thestation of system administration. The Resource Administration stationmonitors network resource usage such as use of the network printersPrinter A 602 and Printer B 604 of FIG. 12. The resource usage withinthe Intranet 600, such as, for example, use of Printer A 602 and PrinterB 604 in FIG. 12 is monitored by the Service Center 502 of FIG. 11 andthe resource usage information is transferred to the ResourceAdministration station at predetermined times, or upon the occurrence ofpredetermined events, for example, when a particular end user isapproaching a predetermined limit on a number of pages allowed to beprinted by that user. For example, warning messages may be sent when theuser reaches 90% of a predetermined limit amount of usage, when the userreaches 95%, 99%, and when the user reaches his/her predetermined limitamount. If a user exceeds predetermined limits, the user may, forexample, be permitted to complete the current job and then be prohibitedfrom any further resource usage, or the user may be allowed to request anew, higher limit.

[0088] Since Printer A 602 and Printer B 604 are connected to a network,they have Internet Protocol (“IP”) addresses. The printers 602 and 604can send status messages to either the Resource Administration station610 or to the Service Center 502 of FIG. 11 through the Firewall 606 ofFIG. 12. As previously shown, a message can be sent directly to theResource Administration station 610 if urgent service is needed. Urgentservice may include, for example, a copy machine needing toner, aprinter running out of paper, a paper jam, a lack of electrical power,or any other device problem which requires immediate attention, eithermanually or electronically. Also, if a particular end user isapproaching a predetermined limit on a number of pages allowed to beprinted by that user, a message may be transmitted quickly to the user.Non-urgent messages may include, for example, usage reports such as thenumber of pages or jobs printed by a printer, the number of callsreceived by a facsimile machine, data concerning facsimile transmissionsmade by a particular end user or users of an intranet, the number ofcopies made by a particular end user, the amount of time an end user hasspent utilizing a particular network device, and facsimile informationfor facsimile transmissions made by a particular end user or an office.

[0089] Exemplary details of transmission of urgent and non-urgenttransmission are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,819,110, andas discussed below. Means other than electronic mail may be used for thepurpose of calling attention for urgent service. For routineinformation, however, the Service Center 502 may manage all resources onthe Intranet 600 and may send predetermined selected information to theResource Administration station 610 using electronic mail. Although theinformation may be available, for example, on the World Wide Web, busyend users tend to forget to check web sites. Thus, electronic mail iswell suited for obtaining the attention of a proper recipient of themessage.

[0090] It is to be noted that messages transmitted to the Service Center502 are generated by the network devices. The Service Center 502 may bethe central servicing center of a large corporation, for example, whilea Resource Administrator may be an entity responsible for managing localresources for an intranet for an office site. It is also to be notedthat network devices may include household appliances and meters. Insuch cases, the Resource Administrator may, for example, be a homecomputer user. In some instances, the Resource Administrator and theService Center may be the same workstation having software modulesnecessary to handle both types of management responsibilities.

[0091]FIG. 13 illustrates a data flow diagram which processes incomingmessages to and outgoing messages from a machine such as the digitalcopier/printer. A direct connection process 670 is used to processincoming and outgoing communications in a connection-mode ofcommunication such as through a local area network, telephone line, orISDN line. Incoming messages pass through buffer 674 to a parsingprocess 692 which performs parsing of incoming information in a knownand conventional manner. The incoming information causes various actionssuch as the actions illustrated in 694, 696, 698 to occur. Some actionsrequire that a message be returned and the returned message isillustrated by the arrows leading to buffer 700. An output messageprocess is performed which prepares an outgoing message to either thedirect connection or e-mail process. The direct connection processpasses through buffer 672 before passing through the direct connectionprocess 670.

[0092] For an e-mail-mode of communication, there is an e-mail inputprocessor 676 and an e-mail output processor 678. Incoming e-mail-modecommunications pass through buffer 680 and a decryption process isperformed in step 684. The decrypted information is stored in buffer 686and passed to a conventional parsing process 692. As explained above,one or more of the actions 694, 696 and 698 are performed and outgoingmessages pass through the buffer 700 to the output message process 702.Then, the e-mail-mode outgoing messages pass through a buffer 690, afterwhich they are encrypted by the encryption process 688. The encryptedmessages then pass through buffer 682 and are transmitted via the e-mailoutput process 678 over a network such as the Internet to their finaldestination.

[0093] Any type of e-mail-mode of communication may be used by thepresent invention. An inexpensive and readily available medium throughwhich e-mail messages may pass is the Internet processing electronicmail messages. The e-mail input and output processes may be according toany known Internet e-mail protocol such as used by the BSD Unix mailsystem which is incorporated into the SunOS 4.1.X. Also, otherinformation describing Internet e-mail operations are readily availablethrough various sources on the Internet itself. It is well known thatInternet e-mail requires an identifier or address of the machine whichis to receive the e-mail. Further, Internet e-mail protocols typicallyconstruct an electronic mail message to include an envelope, a headerand a body. The envelope typically includes the identifier or address ofthe machine or person which is to receive the e-mail and the identifieror address of the originator of the message or where replies to themessage are to be sent. The header typically includes a description ofthe encoding type or version of the e-mail message. The identifier oraddress of Internet e-mail addresses typically include a name whichidentifies the recipient or user of an e-mail server, followed by the“@” symbol, followed by the domain name or host name of the mail server.These various features of e-mail are utilized by the BSD Unix mailsystem of the SunOS 4.1.X. While the Internet provides an inexpensivemanner of an e-mail-mode of communication, the Internet electronic mailsystem may be slow or unreliable and therefore, in certaincircumstances, instead of using an e-mail process, a direct connectionprocess as described above, is performed.

[0094]FIG. 14 illustrates a flowchart which may be used to implement thedata flow diagram illustrated in FIG. 13. After starting, step 740determines if decryption is needed and if it is, a decryption routine isperformed in step 742. Step 744 then calls a parser which parses in aconventional manner and step 746 determines if any action needs to betaken. If it does, for example, when information is to be transmittedback to the remote monitoring, diagnosis, or control device, step 748calls the required routine. Step 750 determines if more processing isneeded and flow returns back to step 740 for further processing.Otherwise, flow returns to the calling process.

[0095]FIG. 15 illustrates a process performed within the machine whichdetermines whether a connection-mode or an e-mail-mode of communicationis needed. After starting, step 770 determines if an event requirescommunication and if it does not, flow returns to the calling process.If communication is needed, step 772 determines whether the eventrequires an e-mail-mode or a connection-mode of transmission. Any typeof high priority event for which immediate attention is needed or whichthe remote monitoring device would be interested in on an expeditedbasis is sent in a connection-mode of communication. This may be usedwhen a hazardous connection exists within the machine or when somethingin the machine needs immediate attention. For example, if a thermistorin the fuser unit senses a high and unsafe temperature, a directconnection mode may be used. However, the transmission of a weekly ormonthly report indicating the usage and a normal condition state in themachine can use the slower e-mail-mode of communication. Additionally,when the e-mail-mode of communication is not properly functioning, theconnection-mode of communication is used. For example, if an Internete-mail message is not properly received by the monitoring device, adirect connection-mode of communication is used. The e-mail message maycontain a request for acknowledgment of receipt and if an acknowledgmentis not received within a predetermined time (e.g. 3-24 hours) then aconnection-mode communication is used to re-transmit the message. Also,if a connection-mode of communication is not properly functioning, thenthe e-mail-mode of communication may be used.

[0096] If step 772 determines that an event does not require ane-mail-mode of communication, step 776 determines if the directcommunication channel is ready. For example, it determines if network,the telephone or ISDN line is available. If it is, a directcommunication process is performed in step 778 to transmit theappropriate information. If the direct channel is not ready, step 780notifies the user through the operation panel that there is a problemwith the device. If step 772 determines that the event requires ane-mail-mode of transmission, step 774 calls an e-mail communicationprocess. The process of FIG. 15 then returns to the calling process.

[0097]FIG. 16 is a flowchart illustrating the processing performed whena non-urgent message is sent from a device. After starting, step 800stores the information which needs to be transmitted in dynamic statestorage. Step 802 determines whether it is time to send the data. Whenstep 802 determines that it is not time to send the data, control passesto step 800, which was discussed previously. When step 802 determinesthat it is time to send data, step 804 packages the informationaccording to the set format, and step 806 sends out the e-mail with thepackaged information to its predetermined destination. The process ofFIG. 16 then returns to the calling process.

[0098]FIG. 17 is a flowchart illustrating the processing performed whenan urgent message is sent from the device. After starting, step 820issues an emergency event notification 820. Examples of such emergencyevents may include, for example, a paper jam, an electrical outage, anoverheating mechanism on a device, a lack of paper, or a lack of toner.Step 822 packages the information for transmission. Step 824 then sendsthe message to the Resource Manager and Service Center, for example, theResource Administrator 520 or 530 or the Service Center 502 of FIG. 11.The process of FIG. 17 then returns to the calling process.

[0099]FIG. 18 is a flowchart illustrating the processing performed whena message is sent from the service center, for example, from the ServiceCenter 502 of FIG. 11. After starting, step 860 determines whether theservice center needs to send information. If step 860 determines thatthe service center does not need to send information, then the processof FIG. 18 returns to the calling process. If step 860 determines thatthe service center needs to send information, step 862 determineswhether the information is to be sent to the Resource Manager, forexample one of the resource administrators 520 or 530 of FIG. 11. Whenstep 862 determines that the information is for the resource manager,step 864 packages the information, step 866 sends the packagedinformation to the resource manager, and the process of FIG. 18 returnsto the calling process.

[0100] When step 862 determines that the information is not for theresource manager, step 868 determines whether the information is to besent to the device. When step 868 determines that the information is forthe device, step 870 packages the information for the device, step 872sends the packaged information to the device, and the process of FIG. 18returns to the calling process. When step 868 determines that theinformation is not for the device, step 874 identifies the destinationfor the information to be sent. Step 876 then packages the informationfor the destination which is identified. Step 878 sends the informationto the destination, and the process of FIG. 18 returns to the callingprocess.

[0101]FIG. 19A illustrates an exemplary e-mail message utilized by theinvention. In FIG. 19A, lines 1-7 are part of the e-mail header. Eachheader field contains a name, followed by a colon, followed by the fieldvalue. RFC (Request For Comments) 822 specifies the format andinterpretation of the header fields, which is incorporated by reference.The fields of the header illustrated in FIG. 19A are fairly standard andself-explanatory. Line 1 indicates from where the e-mail originated,line 2 indicates the date the e-mail was sent, line 3 indicates a nameassociated with the e-mail address (Service Center), line 4 indicates towhom the e-mail is addressed and line 5 indicates the subject of thee-mail message. Line 6 indicates the MIME version utilized by attachmentencodings. MIME is utilized to send binary files in electronic mailmessages which permit only ASCII characters. MIME allows the binaryencoding to be converted to these ASCII characters which aresubsequently converted back to the original binary files at theappropriate time. Such a use of MIME encoding is well known. Line 7designates one or more content fields such as the type of text, thelength of the message and any other desired information.

[0102] Additionally, e-mail messages also contain what is referred to asan envelope which is used by the message transfer agents for delivery.The envelope may be specified by SMTP commands such as “mail from” and“RCPT 2”. Further information about the envelope is specified in RFC821, which is incorporated herein by reference. A third part of ane-mail message is the message body which is the content of the message.RFC 822 specifies the body as lines of ASCII text. In FIG. 19A, the bodyis set forth in lines 9-18.

[0103] There may be files attached to electronic mail messages, forexample as illustrated in FIG. 19B. The attached file 900 in FIG. 19B isan executable file which allows a user to execute the programming codecontained within the file. The attachment of files including executablefiles to electronic mail messages is a known feature of e-mail messages.

[0104]FIG. 20 illustrates a typical screen display of a computerexecuting an electronic mail program and displaying the e-mail messageof FIG. 19A. When the FIG. 19A is displayed, the various encodinginformation is not shown to the user but is displayed in an appropriateformat. At the bottom of the display 910 is a section relating toattachments. The message displayed in FIG. 20 shows an executable file“SUMMARY.EXE” as an attached file. As explained in the body or messageof the e-mail, by executing the attached file, the attached file willcause certain testing, gathering of information, controlling, or loggingof information of the attached printer. Typically, the attached file isexecuted by “clicking” or “double-clicking” on the attachment.Alternatively, the attachment may be saved as a separate file and thenexecuted using the appropriate commands available within the operatingsystem. Further, any other desired method may be used to execute thefile.

[0105]FIG. 21 illustrates a process of receiving an e-mail message whichis ultimately used to transmit information such as data, controlcommands, or diagnostic commands to an attached device according to anembodiment shown in FIGS. 19A, 19B and 20. This method may be performedwith any desired type of computerized or other type of hardware and/orsoftware and may be performed using the hardware and softwareorganization, as described above. In the embodiment of FIG. 21, thee-mail message is received in any conventional or desired manner and itis a manual action by the user which causes the e-mail message toperform the desired operation. In FIG. 21, after starting, in step 930,the computer receives an incoming e-mail message. In step 932, the useropens the e-mail message in accordance with the requirements of thee-mail program which is executing on the user's computer and in step934, the message body of the e-mail messages displays instructions andrequests the user to execute the attached file. Step 934 corresponds tothe display of FIG. 20. FIG. 20 shows that the message displays to theuser the origin of the e-mail message, the purpose of the e-mailmessage, and how the user should execute the attached file in order toperform the desired operations. Alternatively, any desired message maybe displayed to the user. The operations which are performed aredetermined by the attached file SUMMARY.EXE.

[0106] Step 936 determines if the user “clicked” the attached file whichcauses the attached file to be executed. Alternative manners ofexecuting the attached file may be performed such as double clicking theattached file, saving the attached file and using a command of theoperating system to cause the file to execute, or the attached file maybe executed in any other way. After the user causes the execution of theattached file to begin, flow proceeds to step 938 which executes theattached file. In the preferred form of the invention, the attached filecauses commands to be transmitted to the device driver. In step 940, thedevice driver receives the commands from the executing attachment andsends the appropriate commands and information to the attached device.In step 942, the operation specified by the attached file is performedby the device. Such an operation may be any type of operation includingany of the operation, control functions, or data requests ormanipulations described in any of the related patents and patentapplications specified above. Exemplary operations performed by thedevice including remote control and diagnostic operations, thetransmitting of information pertaining to the operation or failureswhich have occurred within the device, and also operating parametersutilized by or stored in the device.

[0107] While the process of FIG. 21 has been explained with respect tothe use of a device driver, the device driver is a convenient label forthe routine which allows control of the attached device, and any othertype of software which controls the attached device may be utilized inplace of the device driver. For example, the e-mail program itself maybe able to send commands and/or data directly to the attached device.The attached device may be any of the devices which have been explainedabove.

[0108] One manner of causing the execution of the program code is to usea graphical pointing device such as a mouse connected to the computer,having the user place a pointer on the object representing the file(e.g., the attached file summary.exe), and subsequently having the userpress a button while the user points to the file.

[0109]FIG. 22 illustrates an alternative embodiment of receiving e-mailmessages in which the computer or program executing thereinautomatically detects that the incoming e-mail message is used forcommunication with the attached device. Thus, in this embodiment, theremay be no need for the user to execute an attached file. In FIG. 22,after starting, step 960 receives an incoming e-mail message. In step962, a program, such as an electronic mail processing program, detectsthat there is an incoming e-mail message. The detection of incominge-mail may be performed in any desired manner. Currently, commerciallyavailable e-mail programs have the capability to automatically detectincoming e-mail messages and such conventional automatic detectingcapabilities may be utilized. Further, in Unix, a specific directorylabeled “/var/mail” which contains a file with a user name receivesfiles corresponding to incoming e-mail messages and when this filechanges in size, appears, or more files appear, the system can detectthat there is an incoming e-mail message. In step 964, the executingprogram parses the e-mail to determine if the e-mail is for the attacheddevice. Such parsing is performed by determining if a predetermined codeexists at a predetermined place in the e-mail message. Exemplarypositions of such a code may be in the subject line of the e-mailmessage, may be a special code which appears within the message body,may be a code which appears in the message header, including a userdefined field within the header, or may even be in the message envelope.It may also be possible for the incoming e-mail message to have anaddress which is routed to the computer which is attached to the deviceand such messages are not displayed to the user but are directly usedfor processing. For example, the device may have its own account. Inthat event, the “var/mail” directory previously discussed includes afile with the account name of the device. Step 966 performs an analysisof the parsed e-mail to determine if the e-mail is for the user or forthe attached device. When the e-mail is determined to be for theattached device, flow proceeds to step 968 which performs an operationin response to the e-mail for the device. This performed operation maybe any of the previously described operations including operationsdescribed in the related patents and patent applications including theperforming of a mechanical action, such as movement of a scanning heador printer head or causing any other type of mechanical actionstypically performed by the device in question, and also operationsincluding the transmitting of parameters.

[0110] When step 966 determines that the attached e-mail is for a user(e.g., the e-mail is unassociated with the attached device and is notused to control or monitor the attached device), flow proceeds from step966 to step 970 which allows the user to view, reply to, forward, orperform any other desired function on this e-mail. From steps 970 and968, control flows to step 972 which determines if there are additionale-mail messages. If there are more messages, flow proceeds back to step964. If there are no more messages, the process of FIG. 22 ends.

[0111] Another alternative to using e-mail is to send, to a user of thecomputer, an e-mail message with a web address where an executable filemay be downloaded. Unlike attaching executable code, this method will atleast allow the user to verify the web site before downloading andexecuting code. This method requires more work by the user, but allowsthe user to check the source of the executable code.

[0112] In addition to receiving electronic mail messages which are usedfor monitoring and/or controlling an attached device, the invention alsoincludes the transmission of e-mail messages which contain informationof the device attached to the computer. The present invention preparesdata for transmission in e-mail messages, such as the information whichis illustrated in FIGS. 25-28 which are explained below.

[0113]FIG. 23 illustrates a first embodiment of transmitting an e-mailmessage. After starting, the message is prepared to be transmitted instep 1000. In order to prepare the message to be sent, data which ispart of the message is obtained or generated. This data may be obtainedby querying the device attached to the computer, or alternatively, isalready stored in the computer. The data may also be obtained asdisclosed in the related applications, if desired. The e-mail message isprepared to have a format of conventional e-mail systems including theenvelope, header, and body of the e-mail message, as explained above,although any desired format may be used.

[0114] Step 1002 then sends the message to an outmail object. An outmailobject is preferably a software object or routine executing within thecomputer which performs the transmission out of the computer. The mannerin which the transmission is performed in the Microsoft Windowsenvironment is through the use of the Messaging Application ProgrammingInterface (“MAPI”). The MAPI allows interaction with the messagingsystem and does not require a programmer to write all code which isutilized to transmit messages. By setting the MAPI in Windows to aspecific program, such as the Microsoft Outlook Express e-mail program,when a message is transmitted to the outmail object (the MAPI client),the message transmission may become automated. Details regarding theimplementation and use of MAPI are set forth in the book “Inside MAPI”by Irving De la Cruz and Les Thalaer, published by the Microsoft Press,1996, which is incorporated herein by reference. Any feature regardingthe use of MAPI disclosed in this book may be utilized to implement thepresent invention using the MAPI client. In step 1004, the e-mailmessage is transmitted out of the client, preferably using the outmailobject.

[0115] The outmail object has been described as being the Windows MAPI.However, any other outmail object may be used to assist in thetransmission of e-mail messages. Alternatively, a software object doesnot have to be used but any desired code which assists in thetransmission of the outmail object may be utilized.

[0116] An alternative manner of transmitting e-mail messages accordingto the present invention is illustrated in FIG. 24. The method of FIG.24 is preferably performed in a Unix environment, although any othersoftware or operating system environment may be utilized as long as thedesired steps are performed. In FIG. 24, after starting, step 1040prepares the message to be sent. This step is utilized to obtain theinformation which is to be transmitted and may be performed in a similarmanner as when step 1000 of FIG. 23 is performed, if desired. In step1042 of FIG. 24, the mail output files are prepared and include themessage which was prepared in step 1040. In step 1044, the output fileswhich may be one or more files, the number of files being the numberappropriate to the operating system, are stored in an outgoing maildirectory which in Unix is referred as the mail spool directory. Thisdirectory in Unix may be located at /var/spool/mqueue, although anyother appropriate directory may be used. Once the appropriate file(s) is(are) stored in the desired location, step 1046 is performed whichtransmits an electronic mail message corresponding to the file(s) whichhas been stored. The process of FIG. 24 then ends.

[0117]FIG. 25 illustrates a data structure 1080 containing deviceinformation. This is information which is preferably transmitted fromthe device to the computer and/or from the computer out to a networkusing an e-mail format. FIG. 25 is an exemplary format and any desiredformat or information of the attached device which is of interest may betransmitted. The data structure 1080 illustrated in FIG. 25 includes adevice identification 1082, a model of the device 1084, a device type1086 which indicates information such as whether the device is ascanner, digital copier, printer, fax machine, multifunction device, orany other information regarding the type of the device. Field 1088illustrates the capabilities of the device such as the optionalequipment and capabilities of the device such as the type of outputtrays (e.g., a sorter), or whether the device has an automatic documentfeeder, for example, as explained in the related applications andpatents. Further, information relating to the operation of the devicemay be transmitted. The information illustrated in FIG. 25 relates to aprinter, copier, or multifunction device, and different information maybe utilized for different types of devices. Exemplary information whichmay be included in the device information data structure 1080 include atotal number of page or paper jams 1090, a total number of jobs whichwere performed 1092, a total number of pages printed 1094, a totalnumber of color pages printed 1096 which is applicable only to colorprinters or devices, an average number of pages per job 1098, a numberof jobs since the last report 1100, a number of pages since the lastreport 1102, a number of color pages since the last report 1104, a field1108 which stores information of the last 20 jobs including the timestamps related to when these jobs occurred, and a field 1110 whichincludes information of the last 20 abnormal jobs (e.g., jobs which didnot finish in accordance with normal or standard procedures) includingthe time stamps of when these jobs or abnormalities occurred, ifdesired.

[0118] The present invention may be utilized to create informationalreports regarding status or other information of the device which isbeing monitored. The information of the devices may be transmitted overthe Internet to another company or to a computer of the same company, oralternatively may be transmitted as an e-mail which remains within theprivate network such as the local area network or a wide area network ofa company. A machine which receives e-mail messages prepared andtransmitted in accordance with the teachings of this invention may betransmitted to a device such as the service machine 254 illustrated inFIG. 5 or the Service Machine of the Service Center 502 illustrated inFIG. 11. The service machine may then notify an appropriate entity suchas a third party service center, a service center of the devicemanufacturer such as the copier or printer manufacturer's service centeror other authorized service center, or any other entity and indicatethat a specific problem exists. Such notification may be performedthrough electronic mail, through a direct computer connection, through atelephone call to a person using a facsimile transmission, through theindication of a voice message, or in any other desired manner.

[0119]FIG. 26 illustrates a log 1120 of collected data from variousmachines which indicates a problem with the machine. The log containsthe identification of the machine which is having the problem, thelocation of the machine, the particular problem with the machine, andthe entity which has been notified. The information which is receivedand transmitted in accordance with the log of FIG. 26 may operate inaccordance with the teachings of any of the cross-referencedapplications. The log may be generated at and/or stored in any of thecomputers of FIGS. 5, 10 or 11, for example.

[0120]FIG. 27 illustrates an example of data 1130 which has beencollected through an inquiry. The inquiry in the example of FIG. 27 maybe utilized to indicate the total number of installed machines of aparticular model (e.g., the FT 6650), the number of these devices havinga sorter, the average of number of copies per job per machine, and theaverage use of the sorter. Any other desired information may also beincluded in the status report. The status report may be generated atand/or stored in any of the computers of FIG. 5, for example.

[0121]FIG. 28 illustrates a customer intranet 1140 with a FacilityManager PC 1144 generating a monthly report 1146 for a particular user.The customer intranet 1140 is connected, through a firewall 1148, to theInternet 10, and to a database 1142. This report could have beengenerated for a computer network having four printers and three copierswhich are located on the customer intranet 1140. The report waspreferably generated according to the teachings of this invention usinge-mail messages, although the report could have been generated using thetechniques described in the cross-referenced applications, if desired.This type of report allows in-company monitoring of machines, forindividual users, which are connected to a network or intranet and thecomputer maintaining information and statistics about the machinesattached to the network may be part of the network, whether it be alocal area network, wide area network, or across the Internet, forexample. Alternatively, the report could be generated for devices on aplurality of intranets by the Facility Manager PC 1144 which storesappropriate information in the database 1142.

[0122]FIG. 29 illustrates a warning message 1150 which is generated fora particular user when the user has reached a certain percentage levelof resource usage. The message is preferably sent to the end user as ane-mail message, although any type of message transmission may be used,including, for example, the intranet resource manager or a driverconnected to the device may send a message to the user which appears onthe user's screen as a network warning, or alert message.

[0123]FIG. 30 illustrates an exemplary generalized network having aResource Administrator 1310, a Service Center 1320, and a User 1300,which are three essential components of the present invention. TheResource Administrator 1310 corresponds to the Resource Administrators520 and 530 of FIG. 11 and the Resource Administrator 610 of FIG. 12.The Service Center 1320 of FIG. 30 corresponds to the Service Machine254 of FIG. 5 and the Service Machine at the Service Center 502 of FIG.11. The Resource Administrator 1310 and Service Center 1320 of FIG. 30include various software components as described below. The ServiceCenter 1320 has access to a database, for example, the Data 501 shown inFIG. 11, to keep track of the resource usage by the user 1300 of FIG.30. The Resource Administrator 1310 includes a software module whichallows the User 1300 to log into the network as discussed below withregard to FIG. 31. The Resource Administrator 1310 and Service Center1320 of FIG. 30 may be the same machine, although they are shown asseparate entities in FIG. 30.

[0124]FIG. 31 is a flowchart illustrating exemplary logic for theResource Administrator 1310 of FIG. 30 to create a new user account fora network. After starting, step 1400 of FIG. 31 adds a new user name.Step 1410 adds a password for the new user. Step 1420 sets up the user'sclass, step 1430 sets a resource usage limit for the user, and controlis then returned to the calling process. It is to be noted that steps1400, 1410, 1420 and 1430 may generally be performed in any order toachieve the desired results, even though the flowchart specifies aparticular order.

[0125]FIG. 32 is a block diagram of a User 1500 interacting withApplication software 1510 that in turn uses a Driver 1530 of the System1520 to access a Resource 1550 in a network. The Driver 1530 transmits aJob 1540 to be performed over the network to the Resource 1550. TheResource 1550 performs the Job 1540 and then transmits a Result 1560back to the Driver 1530. The Result 1550 may, for example, be a messageindicating a normal or abnormal termination of the Job 1540, or it mayinclude usage information, for example, statistical information such asa number pages printed or a number of bytes occupied on a hard drive.

[0126]FIG. 33 is a flowchart of exemplary logic to be used by the Driver1530 illustrated in FIG. 32. After starting, step 1600 of FIG. 33prepares a job to be sent to the device. The Driver 1530 of FIG. 32receives a specific task to be performed at the Resource 1550 of FIG.32, such as, for example, printing a word processor document. The Driver1530 changes the input format of the task to a format that is used bythe Resource 1550. At the same time, in step 1602, the Driver 1530computes the amount of resource usage required to perform the task.

[0127] Step 1604 of FIG. 33 determines whether the resource is availableto the user. The Driver 1530 of FIG. 32 queries the network resourcemanagement software residing in the Resource Administrator's station1310 of FIG. 30 to determine whether the Resource 1550 of FIG. 32 isavailable to the User 1500. Alternatively, the software may reside atthe Service Center 1320 of FIG. 30, if it can be accessed synchronously.As a further alternative, the Driver 1530 of FIG. 32 may have access toa small database of user permission information which is regularlyupdated by the Service Center 1320 or the Resource Administrator 1310 ofFIG. 30. If it is determined in step 1604 of FIG. 33 that the user isnot allowed to use the Resource 1550, step 1606 displays a message tothe user, and control is returned to the calling process.

[0128] If it is determined in step 1604 that the user can use theResource 1550, step 1610 sends the Job 1540 to the Resource 1550 of FIG.32. Step 1612 of FIG. 33 determines whether the Job 1540 terminatednormally. If step 1612 determines that the Job 1540 did not terminatenormally, step 1614 displays a message to the user, and control isreturned to the calling process. If step 1612 determines that the Job1540 terminated normally, in step 1620, the Driver 1530 sends the userand resource usage information to the Service Center 1320 and control isreturned to the calling process.

[0129]FIG. 34 is a flowchart of exemplary logic to be used by theService Center 1320 of FIG. 30 when it receives a message of usageinformation. After starting, in step 1700, the Service Center 1320receives a message of user and resource usage information. Step 1702updates the usage database. Step 1704 determines whether any resourceusage is above 90% of a limit allocated for the resource. If step 1704does not determine that any resource usage is above 90% of a limitallocated for the resource, control is returned to the calling process.When step 1704 determines that the resource's usage is above 90% of alimit allocated for the resource, step 1710 determines whether theresource's usage is above 100% of a limit allocated to the resource. Ifstep 1710 does not determine that the resource's usage is above 100% ofa limit allocated to the resource, step 1712 sends a warning message tothe user showing the percentage level of usage, which is between 90% and100%. Control is then returned to the calling process. Alternatively,the warning message could be sent, for example, at 90%, 95% and 99%usage of the limit.

[0130] When step 1710 determines the resource's usage is above 100%,step 1714 configures the network resource management software at theResource Administrator station 1310 to block, or deny access to theparticular resource by the user. The Resource Administrator 1310 may,alternatively, change the limit or reset the count, if desired. Controlis then returned to the calling process.

[0131] The present invention may be utilized to create informationalreports regarding status, usage or other information of the device whichis being monitored. The information of the devices may be transmittedover the Internet to another company or to a computer of the samecompany, or alternatively may be transmitted as an e-mail which remainswithin the private network such as the local area network or a wide areanetwork of a company. A machine which receives e-mail messages preparedand transmitted in accordance with the teachings of this invention maybe transmitted to a device such as the service machine 254 illustratedin FIG. 5. The service machine may then notify an appropriate entitysuch as an end user, a third party service center, a service center ofthe device manufacturer such as the copier or printer manufacturer'sservice center or other authorized service center, or any other entityand indicate that a specific problem exists, or indicate informationalsummary information. Such notification may be performed throughelectronic mail, through a direct computer connection, through atelephone call to a person using a facsimile transmission, through theindication of a voice message, or in any other desired manner.

[0132] In its preferred implementation, the present invention utilizescomputers having separate housings than the device to which they areattached. This would allow the invention to be inexpensively implementedfor installations which already have an existing computer for performingthe desired processing as the new hardware costs may be reduced. Such anarrangement may also permit implementation of the invention withouthardware changes to the device. However, if desired, the presentinvention may be implemented by including the appropriate processing anddata storage capabilities in the device which is being monitored and/orcontrolled in addition to or as an alternative to a separate computerconnected to the device. Further, this invention may be particularlyapplicable to existing installations such as a print server. A printserver is connected to a computer network and receives requests toperform printing operations and distributes these printing operations toappropriate printing devices connected to the print server.

[0133] This application relates to and builds on various concepts whichhave been disclosed in the cross-referenced patents and patentapplications which have been incorporated into this application byreference. This patent application is intended to include not only theinventions disclosed in the related applications, but also thecombinations of various features and functions of the individualembodiments which have been disclosed in this and each of the relatedapplications. Thus, a feature disclosed in one of the relatedapplications or patents may be readily applied to a concept disclosed inthis invention, and also, the concepts disclosed in one or more of theother applications may be applied to concepts or features disclosed inother(s) of the applications. Further, an e-mail message may be used foronly one of sending and receiving, with communication in the otherdirection being performed using a different mode of communication, suchas one of the other communication modes disclosed herein, or acommunication mode disclosed in the related patents and patentapplications.

[0134] This invention may be conveniently implemented using aconventional general purpose digital computer or microprocessorprogrammed according to the teachings of the present specification, aswill be apparent to those skilled in the computer art. Appropriatesoftware coding can readily be prepared by skilled programmers based onthe teachings of the present disclosure, as will be apparent to thoseskilled in the software art. The invention may also be implemented bythe preparation of application specific integrated circuits or byinterconnecting an appropriate network of conventional componentcircuits, as will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art.

[0135] The present invention includes a computer program product whichis a storage medium including instructions which can be used to programa computer to perform a process of the invention. The storage medium caninclude, but is not limited to, any type of disk including floppy disks,optical discs, CD-ROMs, and magneto-optical disks, ROMs, RAMs, EPROMs,EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, or any type of media suitable forstoring electronic instructions.

[0136] Obviously, numerous modifications and variations of the presentinvention are possible in light of the above teachings. It is thereforeto be understood that within the scope of the appended claims, theinvention may be practiced otherwise then as specifically describedherein.

What is claimed as new and desired to be secured by Letters Patent ofthe United States is:
 1. A method of processing messages, comprising thesteps of: transmitting a first electronic message by a first device;receiving the first electronic message by a first computer; determiningwhether the first electronic message which is received includesinformation regarding a first end user; and transmitting a firstcommunication from the first computer to the first end user, when it isdetermined that the first electronic message includes informationregarding the first end user.
 2. The method according to claim 1,wherein the first computer comprises at least one of a service centercomputer and a resource administrator computer.
 3. The method accordingto claim 1, further comprising the step of: receiving the firstelectronic message by a second computer, wherein each one of the firstcomputer and the second computer comprises at least one of a servicecenter computer and a resource administrator computer.
 4. The methodaccording claim 1, wherein the first electronic message comprises atleast one of an electronic mail message and a connection-mode message,and wherein the first communication comprises at least one of anelectronic mail message and a connection-mode message.
 5. The methodaccording to claim 1, further comprising the steps of: transmitting asecond electronic message by a second device; receiving the secondelectronic message by the first computer; determining whether the secondelectronic message which is received includes information regarding thefirst end user; and transmitting a second communication from the firstcomputer to the first end user, when it is determined that the secondelectronic message includes information regarding the first end user. 6.The method according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of:transmitting a third electronic message by the first device; receivingthe third electronic message by the first computer; determining whetherthe third electronic message which is received includes informationregarding a second end user; and transmitting a third communication fromthe first computer to the second end user, when it is determined thatthe third electronic message includes information regarding the secondend user.
 7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising thestep of: transmitting a fourth communication from the first computer toa second computer, when it is determined that the first electronicmessage includes information regarding the first end user.
 8. The methodaccording to claim 1, further comprising the steps of: determiningwhether to terminate access of the first end user to the first devicebased on the information regarding the first end user; and terminatingaccess of the first end user to the first device when it is determinedto terminate access of the first end user to the first device.
 9. Themethod according to claim 1, wherein the first electronic messagecomprises: information indicating usage of the first device.
 10. Themethod according to claim 9, wherein the step of determining comprises:determining whether the first electronic message which is receivedincludes information indicating a level of usage of the first device bythe first end user which is greater than a predetermined usage limitvalue; and terminating access of the first end user to the first devicewhen it is determined that the first electronic message which isreceived includes information indicating a level of usage of the firstdevice by the first end user which is greater than a predetermined usagelimit value.
 11. The method according to claim 9, further comprising thestep of: generating, by the first computer, summary informationindicating usage of the first device by the first end user, wherein thefirst communication includes the summary information.
 12. The methodaccording to claim 11, wherein the step of generating comprises:generating, by the first computer, summary information indicating alevel of usage of the first device by the first end user based on apredetermined threshold value, wherein the communication includes thesummary information.
 13. The method according to claim 11, wherein thestep of generating comprises: generating, by the first computer, awarning message indicating at least one of a level of usage of the firstdevice by the first end user based on a predetermined limit value and atermination of access of the first end user to the device, wherein thefirst communication includes the warning message.
 14. The methodaccording to claim 11, wherein the step of generating comprises:generating, by the first computer, summary information indicating atleast one of hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly usage of thefirst device by the first end user, wherein the first communicationincludes the summary information.
 15. The method according to claim 11,wherein the step of generating comprises: generating, by the firstcomputer, summary information indicating usage of the device by thefirst end user according to a predetermined usage report schedule,wherein the first communication includes the summary information.
 16. Amethod of processing messages, comprising the steps of: transmitting anelectronic message by a device; receiving the electronic message by acomputer; determining whether the message which is received includesinformation indicating an urgent need of an end user of the device. 17.The method according to claim 16, wherein the information indicating anurgent need of the end user includes at least one of: informationindicating a usage of paper in excess of a predetermined page limit, andinformation indicating a usage of the device for a period of timeexceeding a predetermined time limit.
 18. A system comprising: a firstdevice configured to transmit a first electronic message from a firstresource; and a first computer configured to receive the firstelectronic message, to determine whether the first electronic messagewhich is received includes information regarding a first end user, andto transmit a first communication to the first end user.
 19. The systemaccording to claim 18, wherein the first computer comprises at least oneof a service center computer and a resource administrator computer. 20.The system according to claim 18, further comprising: a second computerconfigured to receive the first electronic message, wherein each one ofthe first computer and the second computer comprises at least one of aservice center computer and a resource administrator computer.
 21. Thesystem according claim 18, wherein the first electronic messagecomprises at least one of an electronic mail message and aconnection-mode message, and wherein the first communication comprisesat least one of an electronic mail message and a connection-modemessage.
 22. The system according to claim 18, further comprising: asecond device configured to transmit a second electronic message from asecond resource, wherein the first computer is configured to receive thesecond electronic message, to determine whether the second electronicmessage which is received includes information regarding the first enduser, and to transmit a second communication to the first end user. 23.The system according to claim 18, wherein: the first device isconfigured to transmit a third electronic message from the firstresource, and the first computer is configured to receive the thirdelectronic message, to determine whether the third electronic messageincludes information regarding a second end user, and to transmit athird communication to the second end user.
 24. The system according toclaim 18, wherein: the first computer is configured to transmit a fourthcommunication to a second computer.
 25. The system according to claim18, wherein the first computer is configured to determine whether toterminate access of the first end user to the first device based on theinformation regarding the first end user, and to terminate access of thefirst end user to the first device.
 26. The system according to claim18, wherein the first electronic message comprises: informationindicating usage of the first resource.
 27. The system according toclaim 26, wherein the first computer is configured to determine whetherthe first electronic message which is received includes informationindicating a level of usage of the first resource by the first end userwhich is greater than a predetermined usage limit value, and toterminate access of the first end user to the first resource.
 28. Thesystem according to claim 26, wherein the first computer is configuredto generate summary information indicating usage of the first resourceby the first end user, wherein the first communication includes thesummary information.
 29. The system according to claim 28, wherein thefirst computer is configured to generate summary information indicatinga level of usage of the first resource by the first end user based on apredetermined threshold value, wherein the communication includes thesummary information.
 30. The system according to claim 28, wherein thefirst computer is configured to generate a warning message indicating atleast one of a level of usage of the first device by the first end userbased on a predetermined limit value and a termination of access of thefirst end user to the device, wherein the first communication includesthe warning message.
 31. The system according to claim 28, wherein thefirst computer is configured to generate summary information indicatingat least one of hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly usage of thefirst resource by the first end user, wherein the first communicationincludes the summary information.
 32. The system according to claim 28,wherein the first computer is configured to generate summary informationindicating usage of the first resource by the first end user accordingto a predetermined usage report schedule, wherein the firstcommunication includes the summary information.
 33. A program productincluding a computer readable medium embodying program instructions forcausing a system to perform the steps of: transmitting a firstelectronic message by a first device; receiving the first electronicmessage by a first computer; determining whether the first electronicmessage which is received includes information regarding a first enduser; and transmitting a first communication from the first computer tothe first end user, when it is determined that the first electronicmessage includes information regarding the first end user.
 34. Theprogram product according to claim 33, wherein the first computercomprises at least one of a service center computer and a resourceadministrator computer.
 35. The program product according to claim 33,wherein the computer readable medium embodies program instructions forcausing the system to perform the step of: receiving the firstelectronic message by a second computer, wherein each one of the firstcomputer and the second computer comprises at least one of a servicecenter computer and a resource administrator computer.
 36. The programproduct according to claim 33, wherein the first electronic messagecomprises at least one of an electronic mail message and aconnection-mode message, and wherein the first communication comprisesat least one of an electronic mail message and a connection-modemessage.
 37. The program product according to claim 33, wherein thecomputer readable medium embodies program instructions for causing thesystem to perform the steps of: transmitting a second electronic messageby a second device; receiving the second electronic message by the firstcomputer; determining whether the second electronic message which isreceived includes information regarding the first end user; andtransmitting a second communication from the first computer to the firstend user, when it is determined that the second electronic messageincludes information regarding the first end user.
 38. The programproduct according to claim 33, wherein the computer readable mediumembodies program instructions for causing the system to perform thesteps of: transmitting a third electronic message by the first device;receiving the third electronic message by the first computer;determining whether the third electronic message which is receivedincludes information regarding a second end user; and transmitting athird communication from the first computer to the second end user, whenit is determined that the third electronic message includes informationregarding the second end user.
 39. The program product according toclaim 33, wherein the computer readable medium embodies programinstructions for causing the system to perform the step of: transmittinga fourth communication from the first computer to a second computer,when it is determined that the first electronic message includesinformation regarding the first end user.
 40. The program productaccording to claim 33, wherein the computer readable medium embodiesprogram instructions for causing the system to perform the steps of:determining whether to terminate access of the first end user to thefirst device based on the information regarding the first end user; andterminating access of the first end user to the first device when it isdetermined to terminate access of the first end user to the firstdevice.
 41. The program product according to claim 33, wherein the firstelectronic message comprises: information indicating usage of the firstdevice.
 42. The program product according to claim 41, wherein the stepof determining comprises: determining whether the first electronicmessage which is received includes information indicating a level ofusage of the first device by the first end user which is greater than apredetermined usage limit value; and terminating access of the first enduser to the first device when it is determined that the first electronicmessage which is received includes information indicating a level ofusage of the first device by the first end user which is greater than apredetermined usage limit value.
 43. The program product according toclaim 41, wherein the computer readable medium embodies programinstructions for causing the system to perform the step of: generating,by the first computer, summary information indicating usage of the firstdevice by the first end user, wherein the first communication includesthe summary information.
 44. The program product according to claim 43,wherein the step of generating comprises: generating, by the firstcomputer, summary information indicating a level of usage of the firstdevice by the first end user based on a predetermined threshold value,wherein the communication includes the summary information.
 45. Theprogram product according to claim 43, wherein the step of generatingcomprises: generating, by the first computer, a warning messageindicating at least one of a level of usage of the first device by thefirst end user based on a predetermined limit value and a termination ofaccess of the first end user to the device, wherein the firstcommunication includes the warning message.
 46. The program productaccording to claim 43, wherein the step of generating comprises:generating, by the first computer, summary information indicating atleast one of hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly usage of thefirst device by the first end user, wherein the first communicationincludes the summary information.
 47. The program product according toclaim 43, wherein the step of generating comprises: generating, by thefirst computer, summary information indicating usage of the device bythe first end user according to a predetermined usage report schedule,wherein the first communication includes the summary information.
 48. Aprogram product including a computer readable medium embodying programinstructions for causing a system to perform the steps of: transmittingan electronic message by a device; receiving the electronic message by acomputer; determining whether the message which is received includesinformation indicating an urgent need of an end user of the device. 49.The program product according to claim 48, wherein the informationindicating an urgent need of the end user includes at least one of:information indicating a usage of paper in excess of a predeterminedpage limit, and information indicating a usage of the device for aperiod of time exceeding a predetermined time limit.